培善耳蕨 pei shan er jue

Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect; scales dark brown, lanceolate. Fronds 36-75 cm; stipe yellowish green, 14-32 cm, 1.5-2 mm in diam. at middle; basal stipe scales brown, dull, broadly lanceolate, ca. 10 × 1.5-1.8 mm, papery, obtusely toothed, acuminate; distal stipe scales similar but narrower and shorter toward apex of stipe and base of rachis, dark brown, dull, varying in size, narrowly lanceolate to subulate, papery, margins shortly and sparsely ciliate, apices caudate or acute. Lamina simply pinnate, adaxially shiny, green when fresh, lanceolate, 22-43 × 4.5-6.5 cm, base slightly contracted, apex caudate; rachis ca. 1.5 mm in diam., without proliferous bulbils; rachis scales dark brown, narrowly lanceolate. Pinnae 18-38 pairs, two basal pairs 1.7-2.3 cm apart, alternate, attached at ca. 80° angle to rachis, oblong-deltoid, 2.4-3.3 × 1.1-1.3 cm, shortly stalked, acroscopic base auriculate, basiscopic base cuneate, margins entire, apices acute; abaxially scaly, adaxially glabrous; microscales present abaxially, subulate, up to 1 cm; frond texture thinly leathery; adaxial midrib concave, abaxially raised; lateral veins free, once dichotomous, ca. 11 pairs from midrib per pinna, prominent abaxially, indistinct adaxially. Sori terminal on veins of upper pinnae, 1-20 per fertile pinna, ca. 1 mm distant from pinna margin; indusia yellowish brown, ca. 1 mm in diam., membranous, repand.

● Broad-leaved evergreen forests dominated by Cyclobalanopsis glauca mixed with Celtis sinensis and Zelkova serrata, basic black soil derived from limestone in ravines; 700-1100 m. S Guizhou (Libo, Luodian, Pingtang).

Polystichum peishanii and P. guangxiense share ± oblong pinnae with entire margins and sori located close to the pinna margin. The two species differ in the following ways: P. peishanii has the lamina contracted toward the base, papery pinnae, acute apices, and larger scales on the stipe base. The lamina of P. guangxiense is not contracted toward the base, the pinnae are smaller (1.7-2 × 0.6-0.8 cm), nearly leathery, and with the apex obtuse; the scales at the base of the stipe are also smaller (5-6 × 1-1.5 mm).